Vietman Draft Dataset
Instructor: Jill E. Thomley (thomleyje@appstate.edu)
Updated: Monday, May 01, 2023 @ 07:19:09 PM
Description
In December 1969, the U.S. Selective Service System conducted a lottery to determine draft order for eligible men in the upcoming year. The 366 days of the year (including February 29) were written on small pieces of paper. Each was placed in a plastic capsule, then the capsules were hand-mixed in a cardboard box and dumped in a glass jar. Capsules were pulled out by hand one at a time. The first birthday chosen was September 14. Anyone born on that day in 1944 through 1950 was assigned draft lottery number 1 and they were the first group of men called up. By the end of 1970, men with draft numbers 1 through 195 were called up to serve, in the order they were drawn. Some people asserted that the numbers were not randomly distributed through the year, in particular when you compared the first half and second half of the year. (“Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random,” New York Times, Jan. 4, 1970, written by David E. Rosenbaum)
Representative Alexander Pirnie (R-NY) drawing the first draft number. Image is public domain.
Variables
month: month of the yearday: day of the monthbirthyear: birth year(s) of registrants eligible to be drafteddrawyear: year in which the numbers were drawndraftyear: year of potential call-up and inductionhalfyear: Jan 1 to Jun 30 (first half) or July 1 to Dec 31 (second half)
draftnumber: draft number (order) for each day in a given calendar year
Rows: 2,562
Columns: 7
$ month <dbl> 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1…
$ day <dbl> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,…
$ birthyear <chr> "1944-1950", "1944-1950", "1944-1950", "1944-1950", "1944-…
$ drawyear <dbl> 1969, 1969, 1969, 1969, 1969, 1969, 1969, 1969, 1969, 1969…
$ draftyear <dbl> 1970, 1970, 1970, 1970, 1970, 1970, 1970, 1970, 1970, 1970…
$ halfyear <chr> "first", "first", "first", "first", "first", "first", "fir…
$ draftnumber <dbl> 305, 159, 251, 215, 101, 224, 306, 199, 194, 325, 329, 221…# A tibble: 6 × 7
month day birthyear drawyear draftyear halfyear draftnumber
<dbl> <dbl> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <chr> <dbl>
1 1 1 1944-1950 1969 1970 first 305
2 1 2 1944-1950 1969 1970 first 159
3 1 3 1944-1950 1969 1970 first 251
4 1 4 1944-1950 1969 1970 first 215
5 1 5 1944-1950 1969 1970 first 101
6 1 6 1944-1950 1969 1970 first 224Variables
draftyear: year of potential call-up/inductiondrawdate: date on which the numbers were drawnbirthyear: birth year(s) of registrants eligible to be draftedmaxcalled: highest draft number called up in that draft year
Rows: 7
Columns: 4
$ draftyear <dbl> 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976
$ drawdate <chr> "December 1, 1969", "July 1, 1970", "August 5, 1971", "Febru…
$ birthyear <chr> "1944-1950", "1951", "1952", "1953", "1954", "1955", "1956"
$ maxcalled <dbl> 195, 125, 95, NA, NA, NA, NA# A tibble: 6 × 4
draftyear drawdate birthyear maxcalled
<dbl> <chr> <chr> <dbl>
1 1970 December 1, 1969 1944-1950 195
2 1971 July 1, 1970 1951 125
3 1972 August 5, 1971 1952 95
4 1973 February 2, 1972 1953 NA
5 1974 March 8, 1973 1954 NA
6 1975 March 20, 1974 1955 NA